In her welcome address Prof McGee said the RCSI was pleased to host the Irish Patients' Association event. As a university focused exclusively on Medicine and Health Sciences, in tandem with the original founding remit of a national role training surgeons and overseeing standards of surgery, RCSI is about quality in all aspects of healthcare delivery.

Prof McGee said that the RCSI have a specific ‘PPI’ (patient and public involvement) orientation for both our education and research activities. It is specifically called out in our Strategy (2023-27). Staff leading in both areas include patients and the public, for instance in education in training in communication and procedural skills for Medicine, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy and Physician Associate students and in research in study design and interpretation of results. This is a key advance in recent years across all of our activities.

Prof McGee welcomed everybody to their heritage building on the Green. Here since 1810, it was the location of the Irish Citizen Army’s standoff against British Forces on the Green on Easter Week 1916. Prof McGee went on to explain that the rooms you are in hosted Countess Markievicz, Michael Mallon and their troops with this College Hall being the ‘field hospital’ for injured soldiers during the week. She hoped everybody in attendance enjoyed their deliberations in this historic setting.